Talk:Very Thin Atmosphere
Notes (2018)[edit]
Very Thin Atmosphere This defines as pressure of 0.1 atmospheres and says it requires the use of a respirator.
I know this is canon but I have to wonder if people can survive at 0.1 atm even if they’re capable of breathing. A world with a pressure this low is going to have temperature problems to start with, because the local star will either be so far away that it’s frozen out or so close that it’s baking everything. There’s no heat transfer at this kind of pressure and everything would be heavily insulated by near vacuum conditions. The only way to shed heat would be by radiation. So a person would be either freezing or boiling depending on if the sun was shining on him or not, and the ground would be exceptionally hot under their feet regardless. That’s not even dealing with the radiation and UV from the star.
The pressure is a bigger concern. I’m not sure what happens to the blood, eyeballs and eardrums in this kind of environment, but I would bet it would be fatal. At least you’d be looking at decompression sickness.
- - Matt Kerwin